Hydrogen sulfide is a highly dangerous and corrosive gas that is contained in a variety of man-made and naturally occurring fluid streams. One of these fluid streams is the flow of natural gas from a well. Many natural gas wells contain an appreciable amount of hydrogen sulfide, and this hydrogen sulfide must be removed to make the gas marketable to natural gas gathering and transmission systems. One of the purposes of the embodiments described in this patent application is to remove hydrogen sulfide from fluid streams, including natural gas streams to make the natural gas marketable.
One of the most technically challenging and economically costly aspects of removing hydrogen sulfide with granular/solid scavengers is removing the spent capture material from the sulfur removal vessel. In many cases, the physical and chemical reaction that occurs when hydrogen sulfide is removed from the gas or vapor stream, changes the capture material from free-flowing particles into monolithic mass. This solid mass sometimes requires workers to enter the vessel through manways and hammer and chisel the material into smaller pieces for removal from the vessel. This operation is not only extremely unpleasant, but time consuming and costly for the operator of the hydrogen sulfide capture process and potentially unsafe for the laborers.